On the one of the most important preparation races for the Tour de France the riders don’t have to wait to much for the first 1. category climb. Exactly 23 km, when the 10,6 km long Puy Mary starts on the very first stage.
Five of the total of 8 stages are hilly or mountain stages, only the 3d and the 5th seem to be the right place for the sprinters and there is an ITT on stage 4. Otherwise it’s all about climbing.
Nevertheless, the opening stage seem to be the easiest, a warm-up for the rest of the week, meanwhile the 2nd and the 6th stages contain the most climbs: 8 per day.
The queen stage is definitely the 7th one with the HC ascent of Les Sept Laux-Pipay (19,0 km à 6,9%)
At the first glimpse it looks like the whole race ends with a hilltop finish at the Montée de Champéry (5,5 km à 4,2%), but actually, after the top there is 1 km to go till the finish line.
Just take a look at the entire race (with all stage profiles):
THE CONTENDERS
Tour de France is coming, and it’s time for the best known CG-riders (at least the half of them, meanwhile the others are going to participate at the Tour de Suisse starting next weekend) clashing against each other.
Winning at the Dauphine was always a good omen for the TDF, especially in Chris Froome‘s (INEOS) career (winner in 2013, 2015 and 2016). He is the top favourite of the race this year either. We haven’t seen him too many times in the first part of the season, but his real competition tie just begins,
A completely different spring had Adam Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT)he was racing at several races with excellent results (2nd both at the Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya, and several other top 5 or top 10 places). He won ther queen stage of last years’s Dauphiné, the last 2 stage suit him well this year too, only the ITT can kill his dreams of victory at his favourite race.
Only a few previews mention Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), his preparation for the most important period of the season was kind a half way between Froome and Yates method. Pinot wasn’t in the spotlight in the recent months, but he participated at several smaller French races with success, maybe that’s what he really needed, from where the gets the motivation for the big race in next month. His Achilles-tendon could be the ITT too.
Can we still remember how good Astana was in the early month of the season? And one of the best and most successful riders of the team was Jakob Fuglsang? Just take a look at his most recent races: Amstel Gold Race 3rd, La Fleche Wallone 2nd and Liege-Bastogne-Liege 1st place. But we know quite well, that he can ride stage races too, and he has won the Criterium du Dauphiné already in 2017.
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quuck Step) was kind a Fuglsang’s Nemesis during the first half of the season, they provided us with memorable duels at several races, like Strade Bianche or Tirreno-Adriatico. The defender of the Tour de France KOM jersey seemed to be almost unbeatable, and he can ride and win one week long races too, but maybe this program is too much for him. Too many stages with too many climbs.
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) was one of the big favourites of the Giro d’Italia, but his story ended with a crash and an untimely exit at the first week. But he is back and focusing on his possible success at the Tour de France. And most likely on a success at the most important preparing race too.
BORA-hansgrohe has a break through this year, it’s no more everything about Peter Sagan, as we could see at the Giro d’Italia, they has an another good sprinter, Pascal Ackermann too, and there are also another options besides Rafal Majka, when it comes to the general classification of a stage race (or even a GT): Maximilan Schackmann and Emanuel Buchmann (off topic: have you ever wondered how beautiful oldfashioned and aristocratic names the members of this new generation of German riders have: Pascal, Maximilian, Emanuel…). He has a solid season in his backpack so far with several top 10 results.
Another notable mention: Romain Bardet (AG2R), Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates), Steven Kruisjwijk (Jumbo-Visma), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Michał Kwiatkowski (INEOS)
Check out the startlist:
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